The Gift
by saya4haji
Summary: Kara gives Lena a gift. Her response is not what Kara expects. Misunderstandings and explanations ensue. Eventual optional smut in Chapter 3.
1. Chapter 1

"I got you something," Kara says.

The words drop into the quiet of the room as they snuggle on their couch, watching re-runs of Buffy that Lena, living under Lillian's tyrannical rule, had never seen as a kid.

Kara hadn't known how to address the gift she had been working on for Lena. She had been trying to approach it all evening. When Lena first came home there was a whirlwind of talk about sneaky board members and Lena's heroic acts to prevent them usurping her. Then there had been food, and well… food! Kara couldn't really think about anything else while eating.

Afterwards, Lena had rubbed her neck tiredly and Kara had forgotten about the gift for a while as she dragged her wife to the sofa for a neck rub, some snuggles and mind-numbing TV. With Lena lying boneless across Kara on the sofa she had been too comfy to address the issue, but it was getting late now, and Lena was rubbing small circles into Kara's sides. Lena's head, nuzzled under Kara's chin, had turned and started planting little kisses across her throat.

Kara's breath was beginning to get short, she knew where this was going to end up and Kara knows that if she doesn't address the gift now she will lose her nerve again. They will spend another wonderful night lost in each other before drifting off to sleep and Kara will put off the present again. The gift has been sitting in her closet for a week and it seems a now or never moment.

Lena freezes at Kara's words. Kara wants to kick herself because she had just blurted that out and ruined the moment.

Lena draws back slowly so she is kneeling between Kara's legs which are stretched out on the couch. Her wife's eyes are dark green with lust but her brows are furrowed in confusion. Kara's heart beats a little faster as she realizes she has surprised her wife.

Kara thinks back on their relationship: their years of friendship, the year and a half of dating and almost three months of wedded bliss. Kara is a little embarrassed to realize that beyond copious amounts of food brought at surprise lunches, some Disney DVDs, plushies and her bonding bracelet, Kara hasn't really given her wife gifts before. Kara smothers her chagrin and sets a mental reminder to try and be more romantic, more spontaneous in future.

"You got me something?" Lena repeats, her voice low and husky from their activities. The note of confusion and disbelief is heavy though.

Lena's mind is spinning trying to figure out what Kara could have gotten her. Lena is a Luthor. There is no material item she could not buy or create for herself. Had she missed an anniversary, or forgotten her own birthday again?

No, neither of those.

Lena is entirely lost. The idea, that her beautiful wife would get her something, running into the childhood pitfalls of her own low self-esteem.

Kara smiles reassuringly, and her hand rises subconsciously to cup her wife's face. Kara, well used to how skewed Lena's own sense of self worth is, seems to read Lena's doubts and confusion that anyone would give her a gift. Sometimes, Kara really wants to turn back time and punch Lillian Luthor for her shoddy job at raising Lena, her lack of maternal warmth had irreparably damaged Lena.

"Yes. For you, and well sort of for me too," Kara admits nervously and curses herself as she feels an uncontrollable blush rushing up her face.

Lena's confused, almost lost look morphs into one of coquettish mischievousness.

Seeing Kara's blush settles Lena's nerves as she realizes the type of gift Kara is talking about. Lena is nothing if not confident in her own sexuality, her sexual experience and natural confidence making her more than comfortable in discussing or engaging in intimate activities which Kara's complex Kryptonian socialisation and sexuality make her more hesitant in. Feeling on more solid ground Lena leans forward over Kara, hovering like a great cat over it's prey.

"Prey tell, what sort of gift could make you blush like that Mrs El?" Lena asked huskily, her use of their privately held surname making Kara shiver beneath her.

Kara rose up to steal a kiss, but Lena grabbed her hands and pinned her down while leaning back. Kara whimpered slightly. Lena knows Kara can easily overpower her, but also that she will respect Lena's desire to prevent the kiss. Kara's wish to never scare Lena with her strength or make her feel powerless, chaining her strength better than any kryptonite cuffs could.

Lena cocks an eyebrow, silently asking for an explanation. Her curiosity only grows when Kara seems to blush darker than her Supergirl cape and squirms uncomfortably beneath her.

Lena feels her playfulness receding as she sees how nervous her wife is. Lena has done everything she could to make Kara feel comfortable exploring her sexuality with Lena. This renewed nervousness and self-consciousness from her wife, after three months of marriage is concerning. It almost reminds Lena of the first night Kara revealed the alien-ness of her anatomy to Lena.

Lena draws back, pulling Kara up into a reassuring hug. "Hey, beautiful girl. You're safe here. No matter what you want to do, no matter what you want to show me, you know I love you. Always."

Kara lets out a deep sigh and pulls her glasses off, allowing a little of her alter ego's courage to infect her.

"Can I show you?" Kara whispers, glancing at Lena through lowered lashes. The words reminiscent of that first night when they revealed intimate secrets to each other.

Lena grips Kara's hand and smiles reassuringly, "If that is what you want?"

Kara nods and with sudden speed and confidence, as though afraid if she does not act quickly she will lose her never, drags Lena by the hand to their bedroom.

Kara deposits Lena on the edge of their bed and dashes off to their walk-in wardrobe.

Lena sits primly on the edge of the bed, her back straight and trying with all her Luthor control to not play with the edge of her shirt.

The sound of Kara tripping on something and soft Kryptonian cursing drifts out of the wardrobe and causes Lena to smother a giggle.

After a few minutes Kara emerges with a black metallic box about a 12 inches square.

Kara walks with quick nervous steps back to Lena, placing the box on the floor in front of Lena and dropping with boneless grace to sit cross legged on the floor before her.

Kara absently caresses the box's top which seems to have no seams.

Kara darts a look up at Lena and before Lena can ask to open the box Kara begins to ramble.

"I have been visiting the Fortress more since our wedding. It feels more like mine since then, and I was looking through some of my Dad and Uncles notes on Earth when I found the schematics for this."

Here Kara taps the box decisively before sucking in a breath and continuing.

"It seems they had researched earth a bit more than Kal or I knew. I had the Kalex fabricate this for me. I was actually surprised you hadn't made an attempt at one ages ago…although I am glad the schematics were in the database, because if I had to ask Alex to help me build one I think I would have died of embarrassment. Terminal blush may actually be another of my weaknesses."

Kara grimaced in embarrassment at the idea and Lena's curiosity grew. Lena's mind speeds through possibilities and deductions.

The gift then is Kryptonian. What could Kara possibly have wanted that she would be embarrassed to ask Alex for? Lena's lips pursed in thought, yet nothing was coming to mind. When they had become sexually intimate Lena had wasted little time in fabricating a titanium strap on some three weeks later so that she could reciprocate penetrating Kara without fear of having body parts crushed by involuntary super powered muscle spasms. What else could Kara want, since the strap on she had expressed no other desires.

Kara seems to fidget in place under Lena's thoughtful expression. Lena attempts to hide her bewilderment and reassure her wife.

"Kara, you can come to me about anything you want to try. I am yours, we walk in Rao together," Lena tries to reassure as she leans forward and grasps Kara's bonding bracelet on her left arm. Kara reciprocates the gesture, and they sit, hands linked across the mystery box.

Kara searches Lena's eyes for a long moment and a small smile creeps across her face as she shyly blushes in embarrassment at her foolishness. Kara knows she can trust Lena, it seems almost silly to be nervous, but Kryptonian sexuality is so complicated, and sex was such a private and rare occurrence that Kara sometimes struggles to express her feelings.

With a shrug Kara smiles ruefully, "I am actually surprised that you hadn't built one before, or at least attempted to. Maybe you have. I know that you have been letting me take the lead with all of this." Kara waved vaguely at the bedroom to encompass the entirety of the sexual side of their relationship.

Lena agrees that she has been letting Kara set the pace of their relationship, conscious that she never take advantage of Kara's charitable and kind nature. Lena knows Kara would do anything to please her, even if it was something that she didn't want, a circumstance which the selfish man-child Mon-El had taken advantage of. Lena was determined to never allow that to happen, her pleasure was secondary to Kara's: because all Lena wanted to be happy was Kara's happiness.

Lena is admittedly flummoxed. A singularly unique occurrence for the Luthor genius. What could this gift possibly be that Kara thinks Lena would have made one, or at least attempted to make one before?

Lena went to draw her hands back, impatience getting to her. Kara takes this as her signal and she presses her palm to the top of the black box and gripping Lena's hand does the same with hers. The box's lid glows and the outline of their palms suddenly appears etched into the seemingly impenetrable black metal. The box hisses and a seam appears along the bottom edge.

Lena can't hide her surprise. The box was dual palm print locked. What sort of gift would need such security?

Kara smiles and shrugs lightly, seemingly pleased at her wife's surprised awe. "The Kalax figured it should be kept secure. I know that will appeal to your Luthor paranoia."

Kara laughs softly as though the idea was silly, but Lena's stomach tightens, the idea that the gift may need such security making her nervous and her palms sweaty. Kara is so trusting that it is obvious she thinks the idea of securing the gift silly, but that the Kalex thought at least a palm lock is needed is worrying.

Kara lifts off the top of the box in one fluid movement to reveal a dull red globe on a silver clawed base surrounded with kryptonian symbols.

Lena sucks in a breath with a hiss, her mind immediately realizing what the gift is. Bile rises to the back of the Luthor's throat and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Kara oblivious to Lena's reaction sets the box's top aside and lifts the red sun lamp, her eyes fixed wonderingly on it.

"I want to be able to touch you Lena; without fear. I want you to be able to mark me as I mark you."

Kara looks up at Lena and only then seems to realize that something is wrong. Lena's heart is racing, her snow like skin turned ghostly and her body is leaning away from Kara and the red sun lamp. The fear and revulsion is practically dripping from Lena's body language. Lena's teeth audibly snap together.

Lena's jaw muscles ripple and with robotic motions she leans forward to push the lamp back to the box's base. Kara's confusion steals across her face.

Before Kara can speak Lena lifts the lid of the box and with a resounding 'clunk' she slams it back over the lamp. The seam disappears in the blink of an eye.

"No!" Lena says. Her voce cold and unyielding.


	2. Chapter 2

Kara is struck dumb. She stares incomprehensibly at Lena's determined face.

"No? What do you mean no?!" Kara gasps out her face falling and her eyebrows scrunching together, a thousand thoughts scrambling in her brain.

Lena pushes up and lifts the sealed box containing the red sun lamp.

"No Kara. It means no, I will not now, nor will I ever use this…thing on you," Lena sneered at the box before walking out of their bedroom.

Kara was lost, she blinked owlishly at where Lena had just been, uncomprehending at Lena's resolution and apparent revulsion at the idea.

Kara's mind was already spiralling into self-doubt. Did Lena only want to make love to her when she had her powers? When she was Supergirl and not just Kara? Did Lena not want Kara if she was unable to use superspeed and super strength to make their intimate time 'interesting?' Did Lena think she would be that bad in bed without her powers?

Kara dragged herself to her feet and staggered zombie like after Lena, lost in thought and moving partially on autopilot. Kara's vision seems blurred and it is only after blinking rapidly that she realizes that her eyes are swimming in tears.

A crash from the kitchen has Kara pushing her self doubts and hurt aside as she super-speeds to their kitchen where she finds Lena standing, her arms braced at the black granite counter as she breathes heavily like a panicked deer. The box containing the lamp sits innocently on the counter and across from it appears to be the ruined remains of Lena's very expensive, one of a kind, custom made smart phone. Evidently, in some frustration she had thrown it at the window.

"Lena…" Kara whispers.

Her wife's head whips up and Lena seems to flinch for a moment at Kara's defeated posture and tear filled eyes. The expression is lost but a second later when Lena does the thing Kara hates the most, something she hasn't done in months, she bottles all of her emotions and personality up and sinks it all, along with her true personality behind her cold Luthor mask. Her anger, her sorrow, her regret and even her love for Kara disappears in those damn little boxes deep inside herself.

They stare at each other for a moment and then Lena's eyes twitch to the open blinds of their penthouse suite. Despite the mask, Lena's eyes widen a fracture and then she is striding with purpose to the windows, snapping blinds shut with vicious tugs.

Kara is afraid. The idea of the indestructible alien being afraid should be laughable, but Kara has never seen Lena this- unhinged- and it scares her.

Trying again, Kara walks fully into the room and circling a wide path around the 'box' she begins picking up the remains of Lena's smart phone.

"Lee-lee, what is going on and who were you going to call before you murdered your phone? Why are you freaking out, the red…"

Lena spins on her heal and growls between her teeth, "Shut up! Don't talk about it out loud! How could you be so _foolish_ as to bring that...that _thing_ , here!"

Lena's mask seemed to be straining to contain her emotions as her eyes glistened and her hands clenched and unclenched at her side like a wild animal, desperate to tear something apart.

Kara's kind blue eyes darken in anger. She hates being called stupid or foolish. People mistake her kindness and optimism for naivety and stupidity but she is a freaking genetically engineered superior species! How dare they! How dare Lena!

"Forgive me for wanting to share something intimate with my wife, I didn't realize I was so unworthy of you without my powers," Kara spits back.

Lena reels back as though slapped, her face flying open in astonishment as her genius intellect finally realizes that Kara is seeing the rejection of the Sun lamp as a reject of her.

Kara stands proudly but a tear has slipped down her cheek and her body is trembling slightly. Lena catalogues her wife's condition and realizes she has screwed up. Kara isn't seeing the danger that Lena is, the possible disaster of this gift, only that it would allow them to be intimate in a new way and by rejecting it Lena is rejecting her wife.

"Fuck," Lena sighs allowing her Luthor mask to drop, her shoulders hunching and her own body betraying a panicked tremble. Lena lifts a shaking hand and rubs her eyes as she tries to make sense of how this evening has all gone so badly wrong.

Kara feels her own panic and readiness to fight ease as Lena swears. Lena never swears, she is the picture of control and swearing was something Lillian had drilled into Lena from childhood as beneath her.

It has always been a silent victor in bed when Kara can get Lena to swear but this sigh, a sign of deep emotional anguish only cranks Kara's worry higher.

Lena drops her hand and slowly walks back towards her wife, "Kara, my love, it's me who is unworthy of you. I am sorry. I swore to walk in lock step with you in the light of Rao and the first time something scares me I walk out of the room and start snapping at you. I'm sorry."

Kara, if anything is even more confused, the idea of the lamp scaring her wife…it is the exact opposite of what Kara had thought it would do. As much as Kara knows Lena trusts her in bed, trusts Kara to restrain her strength there is always the subconscious knowledge, and simple fact that with the slightest lapse in concentration or accidental movement Kara could seriously hurt Lena. How could the lamp removing that possibility, that fear, make Lena scared?

The crinkle between Kara's eyebrows deepens and she welcomes Lena's cool, trembling hands into her own as she steps toward her wife.

"Can we rewind? I really don't understand. I thought that you didn't want the lamp because it would mean I am…"Kara blushed and her eyes dropped to the floor as her voice rose into a squeaky question, "less adept in bed?"

Lena gave another start, her hands jumping in Kara's before squeezing as tight as possible. Lena ducks her head to meet Kara's eye, "Kara I love you. Every touch you bestow on me is a gift, to know it without your powers would be a gift. I am not with you because your speed and strength make you an excellent lover, I am with you because you are Kara and getting to make love with you, to touch you and be touched by you is the pinnacle expression of our love, not the basis of it. There is no manner that you could touch me that would disappoint me _mo grá._ "

Kara blushed delicately, and an unknown tension leaked from her body. Darting forward Kara lay a chaste kiss on Lena's ruby red lips. "Smooth talker," Kara mumbled.

Lena sighs in relief but is cut off as Kara squeezes her hands until Lena meets her eyes.

Kara stares into Lena's eyes as though she could decipher the very secrets of the universe from them, her brows puckering up in an open expression of curiosity, "Then why all of this? Why are you freaking out over the lamp?"

Lena seems to flinch at the word lamp and her eyes dart around as though expecting someone to jump out at her.

Lena hesitates a moment and then tugs at their joined hands, "Can we sit down for this talk?"

Kara nods and allows herself to be towed over to their large sofa.

Sitting opposite each other and still holding hands, Lena takes a deep breath, "I think we see the…item in the box very differently Kara. You are thinking of it is a gift, a positive addition or a toy to be introduced into our sex life. Yes?"

Kara nods while trying to restrain her blush. The way Lena could talk so frankly about such intimate matters always flusters Kara's Kryptonian socialisation. Kara also takes note that Lena is avoiding saying the words, 'red sun lamp' out loud.

Lena sighs slightly again, drawing in a calming breath and trying to put the maelstrom of worry and thoughts in her mind into some order.

Deciding to start at the beginning Lena jumps back to something Kara had said before.

"I did make an attempt at building one myself, last year in fact," Lena admits. Kara sucks in a breath at the confession and seemingly strange place to start her explanation, "Then why.." Kara started, but is cut off by Lena's blunt words, "But I destroyed it before I worked out the last kinks."

Kara's jaw snaps shut in surprise. Kara knows Lena, knows that when she puts her mind to a project then she becomes fanatical, a bit like Alex. Lena never just stops until a project is finished or she has hit an absolute dead end.

Lena lets out a breathy laugh at Kara's shock. The laugh is cynical, self-deprecating and rings hollow.

Lena pulls back from Kara a little, her hands suddenly animated as she tries to explain.

"I am sure that in the beginning, a lot of my reasons for trying to build it were like yours Kara. I thought about being able to touch you without restraint, being able to dip my fingers inside your heat without fearing super strong muscles. The wonder of you not having to hold back when we make love, not having to keep a part of your mind constantly focused on your control and keeping me safe. I'll even admit I had some teenage worthy fantasies of scattering hickies all across your throat."

Lena blushes faintly, a wistful smile overtaking her lips.

Kara smiles back, caught up in the dream, the fantasy that it appeared she and Lena had both been sharing.

"We could have that..." Kara began but Lena cut her off again with cold resolution.

"No!"

Lena's right hand had fists and beats her knee to emphasis the point and Kara startles slightly.

Lena immediately turns fully to Kara, her face apologetic and worried.

"Kara, you have to understand, it's not that I don't want you to have that it's just the risks!" Lena rushes out desperately.

Kara's mouth purses, brackets of confusion pulling at her lips.

"Risks, what risks? Lena, I know you would never hurt me," Kara says as though completely flabbergasted at the idea.

Lena groans again and reaches forward to grip Kara's knee.

"I was so caught up in these fantasies Kara that I didn't see the risks either. Not until I was nearly finished making the Rao be damned thing!"

Kara's eyes go wide. Lena has never used Kara's god to curse anything. The shock of it making a thrill of caution run down Kara's back.

"What happened Lena?" Kara asks softly, cradling her wife's hands and stroking soft patterns into them with her thumbs.

Lena smiles weakly, "I was almost done Kara. I had stabilised the energy source, gotten the refraction of the light rays almost perfect…and then in the middle of my work there was an earthquake. You remember that little 3.2 shudder last year? I claimed I had to stay late at L-corp to deal with some damage caused by falling glassware in one of the labs and a minor glitch in one of the basement servers?"

Kara nods hesitantly as she casts her mind back and comes to the realisation of how long Lena has been hiding this from her.

"There I was crouched under the workbench of my lab, the room shuddering as the L-corp tower swayed to absorb the quake. The glass on the benches was rattling and the next think I see is the… ** _item_** I had been working on fall off the table. It must have been too close to the edge and it just shook right off. It crashed into bits. I was furious. When the shaking stopped I climbed out and started to pick pieces of glass up. I nicked my finger on the glass."

Lena stares at her right index finger, lost in thought as though she can still see the cut. Kara remembers Lena telling her she had gotten it while helping with clean up in one of the labs. Kara had thought it odd a CEO could help with lab clean up but Lena was known for her hands on approach and she had really sold the story of needing all hands on deck to tidy up the labs after the quake.

Lena drags her gaze back to Kara. "I nicked my finger Kara!" Lena whispers harshly. Kara is lost as to why this sentence is being given such weight, as though a small cut is a revelation worthy of Lena's hatred and shock.

Lena's eyes are wide and begging, yet Kara can only gaze back uncomprehendingly. Lena's shoulders sag at Kara's inability to share her realisation and she stares back at her hands.

"It was in that moment Kara, in that instant when I saw my own blood that I realised the truth of the **_'thing'_** I was trying to create. It could hurt you! Make you vulnerable! It could take you away from me. My indestructible love, it could, by the fickle hand of fate or mother nature take you away from me."

Lena's voice is husky with emotion and strained in a way Kara has never heard before. Kara's eyes begin to widen in realisation and she shuffles closer to Lena, attempting to assuage her fears with her presence. Yet Lena shies away from her and her head whips up. The words come tumbling out now, frantic and pleading.

"I remembered the story Alex told me about how you broke your arm in an earthquake when you were without your powers. It was like the worst Eureka moment of my life. All of a sudden, I could see thousands of scenarios and possibilities flashing before my eyes. You, powerless from my creation: tripping on the rug beside our bed and hitting your head on the nightstand, dead before you hit the floor. You and I making love only for my mother or Lex's henchmen to detonate a bomb, riddle the apartment with bullets, or fill it with poisonous gas. Or...or another earthquake where the wardrobe in our room topples onto you…so many ways it could all go horribly wrong, and all from my selfish desire to make you weak, to have my way with you." Lena breaks down, great heaving sobs wracking her usually stoic frame.

Kara gathers Lena into her arms, panicked and unsettled at seeing her lover so distraught. Never has Kara seen Lena so vulnerable and terrified. Not knowing what else to do Kara soothingly rubs Lena's back, holding her close and pulling her towards her body until Lena is cradled in her embrace as though a child to be protected from the horrors of the outside world.

"It's okay Lena, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere…shh." Kara whisper babbles to her wife, peppering comforting kisses on her forehead as she rocks her gently.

This is one of the few times Kara despises Lena's intellect. The mind that allows her wife to predict future business moves, to predict markets and the outcome of experiments is also now letting her predict every possible worse case scenario in which Kara could be taken from her, from the mundane to the absurd, all in vivid and gruesome technicolour detail.

After what feels like an age but is likely just under half an hour Lena has quieted and rests boneless in her wife's arms. Kara revels in the comforting weight and continues her soothing caress along Lena's back. Kara is a little in awe that her wife remains in her embrace. Lena is usually so quick to hide her emotions or try to distance herself from such displays in embarrassment, yet here she remains placid in Kara's arms. It is a sign of the absolute trust Lena has in her wife, to show such vulnerability, yet it is also disconcerting to Kara because it is a sign of how deeply this issue worries and affects her wife.

Lena reaches up and gently toys with the edges of her wife's cascading hair. It is an intimacy that no other gets, as Kara never lets her hair fall from its ponytail when in public.

"I'm sorry," Lena whispers, embarrassed by her breakdown.

Kara briefly tightens her embrace on her wife, the comforting pressure reinforcing her words. "You have nothing to apologise for. I am sorry I never really considered the possible downsides of the…gift. I was too caught up in what it would allow us to share."

There is silence for a few moments, but Kara cannot hold back her curiosity, her desire to lance this emotional boil, to put Lena's worries to rest and allow them to explore the possible benefits.

"Lee-lee, there are ways around your worries. We could use it in a furniture less room filled with cotton wool, with emergency shut down protocols on the **_item,_** and in a secure location retrofitted by you and Alex for security if you wanted!"

Lena tenses slightly in her wife's embrace and seems to take a breath to argue, but Kara carries on, eager to delve into her wife's worries and what has been worrying her since this conversation began.

"Why won't you say its name Lee-lee? I know you're afraid of what might happen but just saying its name won't cause the worst to befall us…it's a piece of technology, not Voldemort." Kara smiles slightly into Lena's hair, trying to inject some levity into the heavy atmosphere but truly wanting to understand.

Lena sighs again and pulls back enough to look into her wife's trusting eyes. "Kara, how did Lord discover your secret?"

Kara's eyes widen fractionally at the reminder of how Maxwell Lord had bugged her sister and discovered her identity.

Seeing Kara catch onto the relevant point Lena ploughs on, "No matter that this is our home and that I and your sister have employed every measure possible to make it secure, there is always still a minute chance that it is not so. I don't want anyone who could possibly be listening into our conversations to know that such an item is in this apartment. That the technology even exists. I doubt there is anywhere on this earth that would meet your sister and I's security needs to make using that **_device_** a possibility."

Kara can't help the self-deprecating smirk at the thought of her wife and sister's security paranoia, yet that is a part of the argument to have later, and one she may have a solution for. Kara mulls the revelation her wife has made and joins the dots of numerous other little quirks in her wife's behaviour this evening and in all the time they have lived together.

"This is why you never use the other 'nickname' for me in the house…and why you keep the apartments below empty for the "visitor" to use its balcony." Kara sucked at talking in code, but suddenly Lena's behaviours were dropping into place. The weekly surveillance sweeps by Alex and Lena of their home, Lean's refusal to ever call her Supergirl, the empty apartment below for her to enter and exit through as Supergirl.

"And why I own a large number of the buildings facing this one on all sides through my own name or subsidiaries. Anyone who wants to live or work in one of these buildings has a subtle background check. The buildings have superior security, tinting of windows to obscure their views and I am working on purchasing the few remaining holdouts," Lena states matter of factly.

Kara feels her jaw unhinge….there were at least eight buildings with a good view of the building which housed their penthouse apartment. The idea Lena had been subtly buying up all the businesses and apartments within was mind-blowing and yet spoke of the Luthor paranoia in spades. Alex, no doubt knew and approved. Kara feels foolish for not having considered the matter before.

"That, that is…" Kara began only to be cut off by Lena.

"Paranoid, psychotic, a waste of money?"

Kara huffed and pulled Lena back to her. "All of the above, but also very sweet."

"There is no line in the universe I would not cross to protect you Kara," Lena whispers desperately.

Kara kisses Lena's forehead.

Lena seemed to untense a little in Kara's embrace, glad her wife is not about to argue with her. Lena may not have super-powers but she has wealth beyond measure and she intends to use it to protect her trusting and beautiful wife.

"I can understand why you don't want **_it_** here. Your reservations aren't unjustified, but what about using it in a safe environment?" Kara whispers, trying to address Lena's worries.

Lena scoffs, "And where would be "safe" prey tell?"

Kara grips her wife closer, "The Fortress."

Lena pulls back so rapidly that Kara almost topples forward.

"What?!" Lena asks, her eyes wide and forehead crinkled. "The Fortress? Kara, you told me you hate the Fortress, it feels too much like Clark's sanctuary than yours, a reminder of what is lost, and you never use your bedroom there, not even on our wedding day did you use it."

Kara smiles indulgently and reaches forward to caress the softness of Lena's cheek.

"It may not feel like my sanctuary, but I do have a room there Lena. A room in a Fortress at the North Pole, remote beyond anything any normal human can reach, hidden and secured by technology that this world can only dream of and as of this year inhabited by a small army of Kalex sentient droids with absolute loyalty to the House of El and selfless, unrelenting need to protect us. Unlike my cousin I am not adverse to bringing online all of its security protocols. We could use **_it_** there."

Lena's mouth gapes slightly and her brow crinkles trying to find a reason to deny Kara's logic. Lena's eyes dart back to the kitchen counter where the box sits innocuously.

A slight blush begins to shade Lena's cheeks. Kara seeing that she is gaining ground leans forward, her voice dropping into a dark husk, "We could do it Lena. We could go there. We could use it. You could touch me, live out as many teenage fantasies as you like. Leave marks on the girl of steel and finally…finally touch me as I know you have wanted to."

Kara's blue eyes are dark with lust, Lena's breathes are coming short and low, and a high colour spreads down her pale neck.

Lena's eyes drop to Kara's neck, fantasies of leaving a butterfly kiss of a hickie at the juncture of her neck and shoulder flickering in her mind's eye.

Kara, in a move far bolder than she would ever usually dare to be, snaps forward to grip Lena's hands and pulls her forward. Kara drops back on the couch, pulling Lena across her. Kara's hands raise above herself with Lena's in her grip, giving the impression that the young Luthor is restraining Kara.

Lena gazes down on Kara in shock. "I would be at your mercy," Kara whispers.

Lena's eyes are huge, her green orbs dominated by pitch black pupils, blown wide with desire.

Kara smiles innocently and allows her body to go limp beneath Lena. Lena swallows slowly and loudly. Her Adam's apple bobbing harshly as she tries to catch her breath.

Lena trails her hands from Kara's grip to gently hold her wrists, pinning her to the couch.

Lena examines the hold, a small part of her revels in the power. A Luthor holding a Super at her mercy. The surge of power and arousal an intoxicating mix. Lena can feel the restrained strength Kara holds back. She knows this is only a ruse, she holds the power and possession of her wife only because Kara allows it. Lena's head twitches to look back at the item in its box behind her. What would it feel like to really hold power over Kara? To really be able to push her down, restrain her? To be able to kiss her with bruising force, to grip her roughly enough to leave her fingerprints on Kara's golden skin and make her straddle that line been pleasure and actual pain. Able to drive her fingers inside her wife's alien genitals in its female form for the first time, with no risk of super muscle spasms breaking them. What would it feel like?

The thrill of dark pleasure settles low in Lena's gut at the thought, but a colder, darker worry grows beside it.

Lena leans forward, her look shifting from scorching heat to cautious love.

"And what if I don't want to hurt you Kara?" Lena whispers.

Kara's innocent smile shifts to a look of open confusion.

"I know you don't want to ever hurt me Lena, I trust you, I trust us. I know that humans can leave marks on each other sometimes when they make love. I know that pleasure and pain can be a fine line in the pursuit of please…gosh the things I have heard from Alex, the hickies, scratch marks and bruised lips I have seen her sporting with that self-satisfied smirk she hides beneath embarrassment. I want that too, and I know you do too. I want to be able to be your equal in bed, not just pretend to be."

Lena blushes at Kara's bold explanation of her wants and the unneeded insight into her sister in-law's sex life.

Lena leans forward and kisses Kara tenderly, chastely, before whispering against her lips, "I love you Kara. You don't need to be human for me. I love that you are indestructible. I love who you are, all of your alien quirks. There is nothing missing in our love lives that I think we need that **thing** for. And Kara, what… what if I like it? What if I like it too much, being able to leave marks on you, being able to restrain you? I am a Luthor…power is…that kind of power…I don't know if I can be trusted…"

Lena's worries are cut off as Kara surges back into a seated position and kisses her wife with furious passion. Lena is caught off guard but thoroughly distracted.

Kara pulls back and leaves Lena gasping for breath with a dazed look and swollen lips. Kara looks supremely pleased with herself. Lena finally seems to come back to herself just as Kara cups her face and says, "Lena Zor-El, you are my wife. I love you. I trust you. You could never desire me too much and you are one of the most selfless and kind people I have ever been blessed to know. You may have been born a Luthor, but you define what that means, not your brother or your mother. You would never hurt me. Never."

Lena's heart beats powerfully at Kara's use of her married name. While a Luthor to the world, Lena had joined Kara's house. Lena is Lena Zor-El only to Kara.

Kara's voice reverberates with strength, trying with every syllable to convince Lena of her own strength and goodness.

Lena sighs and rests her forehead against Kara's, "I love you."

Kara giggles as she breathes with her wife, a smug grin overtaking her face. "Does that mean we can use it?"

Kara can feel Lena's forehead wrinkling and tensing in concern, so she tacks on, "With precautions of course!"

Lena sighs and opens her eyes, sitting back to look deeply into her wife's azure eyes that are sparkling with glee. Lena knows she has lost this negotiation. Some businesswoman she is.

"It really means that much to you? We can't just destroy it?" Lena tries one last time.

Kara's eyes dim slightly and take on a serious gleam before she looks over Lena's shoulder, obviously staring at the box containing the lamp. Kara begins speaking as though no longer even seeing Lena, lost in her own mind. Lena leans forward, grasping the seriousness that has now overcome Kara's demeanour.

"Clark always says he feels weak when he super flares, or loses his powers. That the sight of a red sun makes him feel ill because he associates it with being powerless. To Clark being super strong is normal, being indestructible is normal, flying is normal. It's not to me." Kara says resolutely, her eyes finally returning to Lena.

"Oh!" Lena says prosaically. Once again Lena feels like kicking herself, the realisation of what Kara is saying finally hitting her. The sun lamp isn't a novelty to Kara, it's a chance at normality.

"I lived the first 13 years of my life like any other human. Never having to control my strength, no defying gravity, fully sensitive to touch, temperature and deaf to the quiet sounds of the world. Then I landed here and everything became so loud, my life became about restraint, always being conscious of how I move and never really 'feeling' anything how I used to. My skin was suddenly pliable but indestructible, no matter how hard Alex or Eliza hugged me it never felt like how I remembered from Krypton. Their body heat doesn't affect me, I don't feel sensation in the same way. And the light…visible light here is wrong. Sol makes the colours wrong, your lightbulbs mimic it while Krypton's mimicked Rao. Greens aren't green, blues aren't blue to me here. People's faces don't look right. I close my eyes and the beautiful scenery I remember from home is cast in red, my mother's face is a skin tone coloured by Rao. I don't just want the **_item_** for you Lena. I want it for me. I want to feel. I want to not have to be on guard, I want to sink into sensation and pleasure and you! I want to see what colour green your eyes really are when lit by the red of Rao, I want to trace your skin and your blush in the red light that is normal to me. I want…I want Lena."

Lena feels tears trickle down her cheeks, astonished by how much this means to Kara and all the wants and desires she has been bottling up all these years. Lena wants to kick herself, how did she never think about what Kara coming here at 13 would mean for her. The idea of always existing in a world that is the wrong colour and that she must always be restrained in…Lena wants to cry for Kara but instead she will act.

"Oh Kara, I'm sorry. I didn't realize. I was so stupid. It'll be ok baby, I'll make it work, I'll make it safe. I swear." Lena whispers as she reaches across and pulls Kara's silently weeping form into her arms.


	3. Chapter 3: Safe sex is sexy

Kara's feet crunch in the pristine snow as she touches down. Lena clings to her neck a little tighter before relaxing and gingerly finding her feet as Kara sets her down. Lena knows she is safe in Kara's arms but her fear of flying is ingrained too deep for her not to be relieved that she is once again back on the ground.

Their breath fogs the cold air and between Kara's primary coloured suit and the bright red thermal ski suit that Lena wears they are an eye searing sight in this frozen tundra.

"Take a moment, get your feet back," Kara says to Lena as she steadies her with a solid arm to her elbow. Lena wavers and takes a few staggering steps in the crisp snow before facing her wife. Lena's face is already flushed red from the burning cold and her lips beginning to chap, her lovely green eyes hidden by the thick ski glasses that are necessary when she flies at high speeds with Kara and in the cold tundra.

"I'm fine, honey. Just a little unsteady. Can you open the door?" Lena asks her wife while flicking her head at the large white doors behind them emblazoned with the recessed house of El symbol.

Kara jolts from her worried inspection of her wife. Kara knows how much Lena hates flying and besides the in-prompt rescues this is only the second time Lena has allowed her wife to fly her somewhere. Kara finds it somewhat funny. Of all the people in the world who would give fortunes and even body parts to fly in the arms of Supergirl she fell in love with the one person who sees the romantic ideal as more nightmare than fairy-tale wonder. A flash of guilt stretches its icy grip in Kara's gut before being subsumed by crashing love and tenderness. Kara realises Lena is only here because she wants to please Kara, wants to give her wife a taste of what she has lost. Lena has put herself way out past her comfort zone for Kara's sake and Kara can't understand what she has done to deserve such a self-sacrificing and loving wife, that she would face her fear of flying just to give her wife this gift.

"Yes, of course, sorry! You must be cold," Kara rambles as she stumbles forward to open the fortress.

Lena laughs softly at her wife's rambling before coughing softly, the icy air catching in her lungs.

Kara moves more quickly now, intent on getting her wife out of the cold.

She kneels and uses her x-ray vision to find the key buried in the snow. With sure movements she lifts the dwarf star alloy key and inserts it into the recessed lock in the doors.

Kal-El in his arrogance had refused Kara's pleas to upgrade the Fortress' security. Over confident that he and Kara alone would be able to find the remote and hidden Fortress, and that so few others existed who could lift the dwarf star key, its density making its movement by anything less powerful than a superhuman being unthinkable, that Kal-El believed it was enough security.

Then Cadmus had broken in with ease and made a mockery of his security. Thankfully this had prompted him to upgrade security, turn on some of Jor-Els more paranoid pre-programmed security features and allow Kara to make some additions herself.

When the key turned in the lock, instead of the door opening as it would have previously, the great symbol of El vanished and a Kryptonian keypad appeared. Above it a modified phantom projector extended threateningly from a hatch in the wall, keyed to flash any intruder with the wrong code to a pocket dimension for holding.

Kara quickly inputs the 43 Kryptonian digit security code and stepped back to allow the doors to swing open.

The dark entrance of the Fortress now revealed, Kara waited and Lena came to stand at her side, the warm air from within offering a tantalising reprieve from the sub-zero temperatures. A soft hum was the only warning before a small half company of Kalex robots formed up to greet their visitors.

The monocular visor which normally glowed a placid gold warmed to an angry red, armed and ready to fire.

"Kara.." Lena whispered urgently, her heart suddenly racing as she flicks her eyes from the approaching Kalex to the frozen tundra and relative safety behind them.

Kara feels a twinge of guilt and recriminates herself for not warning Lena that she had upgraded security here.

Kara glances behind them and in the near zero visibility of the white and grey tundra she sees the sudden appearance of burning red light surrounding them from behind and seemingly suspended from random points on the sheer cliffs around them.

Kara squeezes her wife's hand in reassurance. "It's fine, I promise." Lena relaxes only slightly but before Kara can speak further the lead Kalex, embossed with her family crest and wearing the sigil denoting it as Kal-rex demands in fluent Kryptonian, " **Submit for verification scanning and state your name."**

Lena's lips move slightly as she translates the Kryptonian and Kara can't help but feel immense pride at her wife's ability to speak her peoples' language. A few more years and she will be more fluent than even Kal-El. Lena knows now what the Kalex wants and she removes her ski goggles to give an unobstructed view of her eyes.

Kara holds perfectly still as a blue light emits to skim herself and Lena. Lena's flinch rushing up her arm.

 **"Retinal, body imprint and DNA scan complete, no abnormalities found."** Kal-rex hums.

Kara smiles slightly and with a nod to Lena in reassurance and then Kal-Rex she speaks, **"I am Kara-Zor El, matriarch of the House of El. I come to rest in my home."**

Kal-rex responds in no way except to sweep its head towards Lena in an expectant manner.

Lena swallows and licks her chapped lips before squaring her shoulders to call out in a strong voice which betrays none of her nerves, **"I am Lena Lutessa El, former matriarch of House Luthor and bonded of Kara Zor-El."**

The Kalex hum for a moment and then Kal-rex quietly says, " **Voice verification completed and authenticated. Welcome home Ladies El."**

The Kalex as one power down their red visors, back to the warm and welcoming glow, their clenched metal hands lower into open handed gestures of welcome and sweeping motions to bid them enter.

Kara steps forward and smiles at the Kalex, who now free of their security programming return to the genial A.I's that are loyal to the House of El and friends of Kara.

 **"How may we be of assistance Ladies El?"** asks a new Kalex with the symbol Harth-lex.

Kara gently tugs her wife further into the entrance corridor of the Fortress as the doors swing shut behind them before she answers the little machine, **"Please prepare my private suite in accordance with the instructions I left yesterday. Make all corridors that my wife walks comfortable for a human to traverse and maintain full security protocols."**

Harth-lex offers a short bow before shooting off with the rest of its company until only their low echoing hum sounds in the distance.

Lena watches the robot army disappear and then pins her wife with narrowed green eyes, "Explain," she demands in English.

Kara scuffs her boots along the polished white floor and fiddles with her cape before taking a few skipping steps forward and turning to face her wife, walking backwards to draw her further into the Fortress as she explains.

Kara blushes and clears her throat, "I forgot to tell you that I had helped Kal to upgrade security here after our wedding. The extra digital lock, and Kalex scans make it much harder for someone to infiltrate the Fortress. I helped the Kalex create a number of bunkers around the Fortress which they man on a rotating basis, they are camouflaged by Kryptonian technology and it allows the Kalex to surround anyone who tries to enter the Fortress totally unseen."

Lena blinks owlishly at her wife for a moment. Kara has essentially turned the Fortress into what its name implied: a Fortress. A castle with its own army of fanatically loyal and super powerful guards. Lena gulps. She isn't sure if she is impressed or jealous. A tightness Lena didn't know had been there relaxes around her heart. The Fortress is safe, safer than anywhere else on earth, and so they are safe here, even with the red sun lamp stored somewhere inside. Lena breaths out a sigh of relief, glad to see her breath no longer fogging in front of her and the pleasant warmth of the Fortress beginning to thaw her bones.

"And the Kryptonian?" Lena asks.

Kara blushes delicately this time and glances at Lena from beneath lidded lashes as she shyly replies.

"Well, so few people speak it that it makes a great security feature. If you can't understand the Key pad or the Kalex then you shouldn't be here, and well you know how much it upset me that Kal-El had the Kalex set to speak English as their default, it's not our language and it seems strange for them to speak it, especially here, in the last vestige of my home so…"

Kara hesitates and Lena feels a mischievous smile take over her face as she walks more quickly to catch her back peddling wife's hands, "So what Kara?" Lena asks.

Kara groans dramatically and attempts to look innocent, "I may have used my position as Matriarch to command the Kalex to only speak in Kryptonian when Kal or I are here. Then hacked their language node to make sure the command can't be overridden? Maybe, sort of?"

Kara replies in an embarrassed rush.

Lena bursts into pearls of laughter while Kara loses the battle with her innocent smile as she too begins giggling.

Tears of mirth in her eyes Lena enquires, "And what exactly does Kal think of this?"

Kara shrugs helplessly, "He didn't say anything, after he initially asked me why I did it. He just mumbles under his breath and struggles on. The Kalex tell me that with his increased practice his accent and grammar are improving though."

Lena laughs joyously and links arms with her wife as they move leisurely through the maze of corridors and doors of the Fortress. Lena notes in her mind that Kara seems to be taking them on a circular route that bypasses the great entrance hall where her Aunt and Uncle's statues dominate.

As they walk their laughter recedes and Lena can't help but comment on the bland uniformity of the hallways they walk, "This place is like a maze, all the corridors look the same, how do you know where you are going? For that matter how did my mother find the data core when she got here?" Lena's tone begins with humorous exasperation but at the mention of her mother it takes on sour anger.

Kar squeezes her wife's arm gently as they walk. "The corridors are all exact clones of each other, all made of the Kryptonian building crystals. The uniform nature makes the Fortress hard to navigate, you could literally get lost in here for days. That is unless you know exactly where you are going or you have super sight to read the tiny Kryptonian symbols recessed into the walls at every juncture." Kara informs her wife and reinforces the explanation by passing her hand gently over a section of wall as they turn left at a juncture. Lena squints but can see no imperfections in the crystal walls, never mind Kryptonian signs. Lena snorts at the ingenuity of the design, "Clever," she compliments with a raised eyebrow.

Kara hums, "Indeed. As for the data core your mother accessed: Well, like I said, Kal-El was over confidant and quite frankly lazy. He didn't think anyone could get to the Fortress or read Kryptonian so the data core your mother accessed was one of the minor knowledge stores that Kal used most often. As such it was in a room directly off from the main entrance foyer. Not hard to find and not even security locked."

Lena's eyebrows rise at the explanation and a look of distaste mars her beautiful face, "Okay, two things darling: Medusa is minor knowledge? And he didn't even set a password on the data core…something he would at least do for his smart phone?"

Kara pats her wife's hand gently, "Well, you mother did have my blood to bypass the systems build in DNA protections for accessing the Medusa Data, but essentially yes. You have to remember how advanced my people were Lena, Medusa was a biological weapon but one that would be of no threat to Kryptonians so the system saw it only as defensive. Also, Krypton had created weapons that make nuclear bombs seem inconsequential, things capable of rending time and space, extinguishing stars and destroying planets far more effectively and quickly than we accidently did our own. There is a reason the wider Universe left Krypton in peace after our expansionist period and we as a species retreated back to Krypton. I would say more than a few were even glad when my species all but destroyed ourselves. Kal and I hold such power in blue and yellow sun solar systems, my race with that power and our technology…the main data core holds some terrifying tech. Anyway, Kal was lazy. All data cores have subsequently been moved to more secure locations in the Fortress and have a range of security features on them which make our entrance at the door here seem tame."

Lena's frame tenses at the thought of such technology, once again wondering at the brilliance and stupidity of the Kryptonian race, before relaxing in the knowledge that the Fortress is at last much more secure.

The corridor Kara leads them to is one of the few without any doors and ends in a seeming dead end. Kara smiles at Lena before unlinking their arms and with a sarcastic edge says, "Welcome to my room."

Kara places her palm on the wall and it immediately splits to reveal a hidden space behind. Two Kalex type robots stand on either side of a large glittering blue door and immediately scan them with blinding blue light.

"Welcome home Kara Zor-El, Lena El" the two Kalex intone.

Lena follows Kara as she steps up to the robots and squints in confusion at seeing a lack of name plates on the Kalex and at second glance realizes these machines lack the elegance in design of the other Kalex. They seem bulkier, more utilitarian and are almost 50% larger than any Kalex she had seen to date.

Kara senses her wife's confusion and with a gesture to the two hovering robots she explains, "These are not A.I Kalex but merely interface droids that act as terminals to relay commands to the other Kalex, to the Fortress or as last lines of defence. As such they are equipped with stronger shields, made of heavier composite metals and are equipped with an array of more…unusual weaponry."

Lena nods hesitantly as she digests this new information, the reality of how secure they are in this place dawning on her.

"So their like Amazon Alex's with bazookas," Lena jokes.

Kara hums, "hmm, more like nuclear ray guns but close enough."

Lena chokes on air at the casual correction but before she can interrogate Kara she is issuing commands to the two Kalex and striding forward.

 **"My wife and I will be retiring to our rooms. Security protocol SeigeFortress is engaged. No one is to enter the Fortress until both my wife and I leave this room. If any approach the Fortress, even my cousin Kal-El, an audio message is to be relayed into my room and I will decide on the course of action to follow. If any visitors attempt any hostile actions I am to be informed by audio message and the Fortress and all Kalex are ordered to neutralised the aggressors with all haste and power. Is that understood?"**

The Kalex bow formerly and a red glow lights up their armour as they power up, **"Understood Lady El, the Fortress and all Kalex are initiating SeigeFortress protocol. All entrances have been locked down, full Fortress visual cloaking, kinetic and energy shielding is engaged, perimeter weapons and dimensional projector weapons are coming online, all Kalex are retrieving supplementary weaponry, initiating personal shielding and reporting to sentry positions in double standard numbers. The medical suite is initiating, and full transport and healing tank capability will be available to you and your wife at a single command."**

Lena struggles to keep up with the rapid fire Kryptonian but manages to grasp the main ideas as she stumbles into the room behind her wife.

Kara had sworn that the Fortress could be made safe for them to use the Red Sun Lamp, to reassure Lena's Luthor paranoia but even she has to admit that she is shocked at the apparent measures Kara has taken and the level of security the Fortress is capable of. Ignoring its remoteness in a frozen Tundra, the advanced perimeter weaponry, dimensional projectors, shields and the small army of fanatically loyal Kalex with enough fire power and durability to make terminators jealous is beginning to seem like overkill to even Lena.

Kara had done all this to ensure Lena's reassurance at their safety, to assuage her paranoia about the safety of using a red sun lamp.

Quite frankly it was the sexiest thing Lena Luthor had ever seen. Safe sex is sexy...Lena snorts in her own mind.

The blue doors Lena passed through following Kara are thick, almost a half metre and when they swing closed on soundless hinges there is the sound of heavy metallic locks clicking into place before the doors seam seemingly disappears.

Dull lights begin to ignite revealing a circular room with vaulting ceilings. The walls are a dark earth brown with specks of glittering stones and the floor a polished mocha.

From their right and leading to the back of the room is a sweeping walkway that leads up a single story to a bench which is recessed into the wall with soft cushions overlooking the room. Below this raised platform, nestled halfway along the ascending ramp is a low queen-sized bed with soft brown linens. The base of the bed, the low oval table at its foot, two ledges either side and a squat pod-like sofa opposite all seem to have been grown organically from some material that mimics trees that have impossibly grown into perfect single pieces of furniture. The dim lights seem to be coming from crystals studded and growing from the walls.

Behind the bed is a large ornate circular headboard arching out from the wall and leading to another room behind it, the entrance partially hidden from view.

The room is breath taking and before Lena can comment it becomes more so as Kara calls out in a clear voce, " **Fortress: Activate viewing panel, Spires of Kandor."**

At once the second story back wall where the viewing bench nestles flickers. The entire wall changes from seeming stone to present a view of a city scape that made her own balcony view of National City pale in comparison. The wall was evidently some alien technology projecting a recorded stream of the view of the lost city of Kandor. The wall suddenly seems like a massive window looking out onto a lost world. The spires glittered in red light, refracting and glistening as wispy clouds passed amongst their majestic heights. The towers seemingly made from some organic material like the fortress; achieving forms, curves and heights impossible to human engineering and architecture. Fluttering specks of some advanced hover cars flit between the towers.

Lena only then realizes she has moved passed Kara almost halfway into the room in her awe.

Lena turns to look at her beloved, still clad in her Supergirl suit she smiles bashfully but with pleased undertones at Lena's awe.

"This, this is amazing Kara. Was this what your room was like on Krypton?" Lena asked.

Kara walks slowly toward Lena, embraces her softly while gazing about at her own room. Kara's adorable crinkle appears as she looks at her suite and past it to the one from her childhood.

"It's, similar. My old room had a silver and blue colour scheme, the bed was a single occupant alcove recessed into the wall where the headboard and bed is now and I had more personal items but essentially this is it. When Kal first gave me the room I couldn't bare to look at it because it reminded me of a poor copy of home, but now, like this, it is different enough to be a space for us."

Lena felt her heart warm at the way Kara said 'us.' This was a space Kara had shunned until now, and now it would be a place where Kara could be uniquely herself, and only with Lena. The intimacy of the moment and the space setting a storm of butterflies free in Lena's gut. What had Lena ever done to be worthy of seeing and experiencing these parts of her wife?

Lena squeezes Kara to her, at once annoyed by the thick padding of the ski suit she wears.

"I really need to change out of this thing, " Lena gripes into Kara's shoulder.

Kara giggles, "Really? I like hugging you like this. You're like the ultimate plushie."

Lena pulls back to look up at her wife with a smouldering look, "Really Kara, I would have thought you would be eager to hug me in a lot less than this?"

Kara instantly blushes and babbles, "Yes, no I mean your always beautiful, but we're here to, so …but only when you're ready, if…I mean..."

Lena laughs at her wife's flustered state and pushes herself up onto tiptoes to kiss her wife silent.

Kara groans and immediately sinks into the kiss. Lena never tires of kissing Kara, she always tastes sweet, and her above human temperature scorches Lena's lips. Their kiss deepens and Lena dips her tongue into Kara's mouth curling up to tease the Kryptonians palate before pressing into a dance with Kara's own tongue. Too quickly Lena has to pull back with a groan, Kara's nasally moans driving the blood to her head and much lower down.

"This ski suit has to go…" Lena growls, suddenly flushed red.

Kara's eyes are glazed as she reaches forward to pull the zipper down but Lena grabs her hands. "Where is my bag Kara I want to change? As I am sure you do too before we start something that we won't want to stop. Let's do this right."

Kara blushes and seems to come back to herself as she ducks her head and stutters, "Right, yes, your bag. The one I flew here yesterday that you packed. It's in the bathroom behind the bed, I thought you might want it there so you could shower to warm up from the cold flight and change before we…uh…"

Lena saves her poor wife from having to finish that sentence. Teasing her further, Lena's voice drops to that smoky, raspy tone that is nothing short of dark promises and anticipatory heat, "I don't think I need the shower to warm up so much as cool down now darling but for our first time in these conditions I think I would prefer to be wearing something a little less comfortable and a lot more scandalous!"

Kara seems to swallow her tongue for a moment, her mouth opening and closing before she steps to the side to let Lena pass, "Yeah, I…Yeah… I will change out of the suit and prepare, make preparations, I mean like turn down the bed and stuff…"

Lena smiles seductively at Kara's nervous ramble as she walks past her beloved towards the bathroom. Lena can't help but put some extra sway to her walk to tease Kara, as useless as it is in this marshmallow ski suit.

The reminder of preparations however prompts Lena to sweep her eyes across the room for the black metallic box she knows contains the red sun lamp.

The reason they are here.

Lena fails to spot the box and her eyebrows pucker a little. Kara must have hidden it somewhere in the room out of immediate sight so as to not prompt the nerves and worries that Lena had felt the first time she saw it.

After weeks of preparation, upgrading security in the Fortress, on the Red Sun Lamp, carving 24hours free time out of their schedules, preparing overnight bags, flying them and food to the Fortress and the numerous talks that had ben necessary to negotiate this moment Lena felt sudden trepidation tighten her stomach.

Slipping into the hidden bathroom Lena was blind to the sleek recessed platform for a washbasin with hidden water fonts, the rippling water like mirrors, the rustic waterfall shower or ridiculously large bath modelled after a Kryptonian hot spring.

Lena pulled off the hideous ski suit, quickly showered and pulled on her sheer black hip length night gown and nothing else. The gown left little to the imagination, but Lena had liked the contrast of the dark gossamer material against her pale white skin, and its short length just covering what needed to be covered while making her legs look infinitely longer. Lena finger combed her damp her to fan across her back and artfully teased open the front of her gown to frame her cleavage. She looked sinful in the rippling mirror yet Lena's earlier confidence seems to have fled. She can feel her heart pounding and is disgusted to see the slight shake in her hands.

All the safety precautions had been taken, Lena shouldn't be this scared, this nervous.

Yet, deep down Lena knows its not fear over the safety of the red sun lamp that has Lena so keyed up. Lena can't help but be nervous for the first time in her sexual history. Even more than her first time.

What if Lena disappoints Kara when they made love as is natural to Kara? What if Kara's invulnerability is all that is keeping Kara from realizing Lena's ineptitude? From realizing that Lena's touch was not as pleasurable as Kara imagines? What if Lena likes having Kara powerless, likes it too much even? What if Lena is the one who hurts Kara this time? Kara who with her super strength has never harmed Lena?

Before Lena can talk herself into a full blown panic attack and the thundering of her heart draws Kara, Lena takes a deep breath and tries to centre herself as M'yrnn has been teaching her.

Fact: Kara is her wife. Fact: they are bound in Rao for all time, nothing, not even potentially bad or disappointing red sun lamp sex can separate them. Fact: Kara loves her. Fact: Lena loves Kara. Fact: Kara has always been satisfied by anything Lena does to Kara until now.

Lena won't allow this to be any different.

With a sharp nod to herself in the mirror Lena swivels on her heal and marches back out to the bedroom.

Kara is seated with her back to Lena at the foot of the bed facing the small oval table that now seems to have split in half revealing the black metal box of the red sun lamp.

Kara is tinkering with the box and what appears to be glowing Kryptonian symbols on its surface.

As Lena walks closer Kara does not glance up but finishes inputting a code on the five available surfaces. After finishing the glowing blue symbols disappear and it is once again an innocuous black metal box.

Lena shuffles to sit beside Kara who now looks up at her, "What was that?" Lena asks.

Kara shrugs, "Another safety measure. The box now needs a 50 symbol password to open it, a password that only I know. It activates the bio-scanners for our hand prints to open the box. Entering it incorrectly will cause a defensive response from the Fortress which would be…bad. The lamp can't be moved from the table anymore, its actually not a table but a data node for the Fortress that I had the Kalex hardwire the sunlamp, the box and its power source to. If there is any natural phenomenon such as an earthquake the Fortress will immediately force the box to close cutting out the red light and the lights in this room will switch to high intensity full spectrum sunlight to get my powers back as soon as possible."

At this Kara pushes a small tub across to Lena with a blush. "This is full protection sunscreen for you…for after…or if the Fortress shuts the box in an emergency. The lights will help me recover my powers after the red sunlight is gone but they would also give you a really bad sun burn so remember to put this on when we are done and the sun lights activate."

Lena is touched by the extra precautions and by Kara's concern.

"Hmm, it would be a pity if I left here looking like an overcooked lobster, what would the press say." Lena drawls.

Kara blushes, before finally adding, "There is also an emergency shutdown function, if either of us says the word for panic in Kryptonian the node will shut the red sun lamp box and cut power to it before automatically switching the light crystals on the walls to full yellow sunlight. Is that okay?"

The word **"voirlk"** meaning panic flies through Lena's head. Lena nods that she understands. Secretly Lena relaxes at this precaution, if she hurts Kara accidently or Rao forbid because she loses herself in the power of a Luthor having a Super at her mercy, then at least Kara can shut the lamp off with a single word. Kara has assured Lena that due to her alien anatomy and physiology that Lena is unlikely to be able to simply overpower her or hurt her too easily but Lena knows in her heart what Luthor's are capable of and the reassurance of Kara's safety sets her mind at ease. A hesitant smile crosses her face.

"You really listened to all of my mad paranoid concerns and ideas for fail safes, didn't you? Lena asks in a tone of wonder.

Kara frowns and reaches across to hold Lena's hands, "You're not mad. Why would I not listen to you Lena? You just want to keep me safe, and if it makes you comfortable to use the lamp then it's a small price to pay."

Lena cups Kara's earnest face and whispers in wonder, "No one has ever cared so much about my comfort, taken my irrational fears so seriously."

Kara leans into the touch, her hand rising to rest over Lena's on her cheek, "They're your fears Lena, so they are important and real…and well I would do anything to make you happy."

"As would I," Lena says as she takes their joined hands and places them on the black metal box. Their handprints recognised in tandem the solid box hisses and a small seam appears at the top before the lid now automatically opens and the red sun lamp on its clawed base rises from within. The new mechanism connecting it to the data node and the box hums before the dull red globe sparks and suddenly blooms into deepest red reminiscent of the light of Rao that the video feed of their wedding day had shown. The light crystals in the room gutter out and they are cast in deepest red.

Lena turns to truly look at her love in the red light of Rao.

Kara pulls back from the box and sits back, her shoulders relaxing and a deep sigh as though she is being relieved of pain passes through her lips. Her eyes which had fallen shut flicker beneath her lids.

Lena is speechless. It is only now that Lena takes notice of Kara's long vibrant blue nightgown, reminiscent of some old pagan priestess, light as spiders webs and now in the red light the vibrant blue has become a dusky blue masked by deepest red.

Kara has never looked so beautiful or so content. Her features shadowed by red light, her hair gleaming as though aflame.

Lena's breath catches and it is then Kara's eyes blink open, the cerulean blue overcast in red is swallowed up by her pupils blown wide in arousal as Kara looks upon her wife in the red light of Rao.

Anticipation builds, Lena can feel the tension, the shift and change in their dynamic. Kara is free, unshackled of the weight of her strength and senses, of her duties as Supergirl. In this moment she is just Kara, and Lena is her wife. At last they are equals here, unbound to explore and enjoy.


	4. Chapter 4: United at last

Kara basks in the sensations of a world gone quiet.

With the red sun lamp on she suddenly feels lighter despite gravity suddenly pulling her to earth. Kara relaxes into the feeling of being powerless, of being as she was on Krypton as a child once again. At last Kara is herself again.

She revels in the silence. No booming heartbeats, no rush of blood, no creaking of the ice drifts and wind outside. No constant whispering of voices and pleading for help reaching her ears that Kara has to sort out and constantly suppress. The scent of Lena and the crispness of the ice and salty composition of the crystals that make up the fortress no longer assaults Kara's nose. The constant stress and tension of controlling her strength, the strain of being conscious of her ever movement and her hyper-alertness to danger drains from her body. Kara's shoulders shift, the weight of the world, like Atlas holding up the skies, is lifted and everything seems easier. Breaths come steadily; movements feel more fluid and tension leaks out of every pore of Kara's being. She feels boneless, free, almost as though she is weightless which for a woman who can usually actually fly is ironic.

Kara opens her eyes and is greeted by the world in hues of red. For a moment Kara thinks she is home…on Krypton, basking in the light of Rao.

Before the sorrow of realisation can settle in Kara's gut her eyes fasten onto Lena's green orbs and she realizes: she is home. Here with Lena, she is home, and she is finally, truly herself.

Kara sucks in a breath, feeling her body's need for the air, a slightly more urgent twinge in her chest and marvels at the beauty of Lena's classically sculpted face in the red light of Rao. Kara thought Lena was beautiful, but here and now, in the light that Kara grew up with, the light of her god, she is fucking gorgeous.

The arts guilds of Krypton could have painted and studied for years, but never captured Lena's beauty.

Kara reaches forward and her hand ghosts across Lena's cheek. Lena seems to hold herself as still as a statue, giving Kara the freedom to lead their interaction, to indulge and explore.

Kara marvels at the smoothness of Lena's cheek while also being slightly shocked at her cooler human body temperature. Kara captivated by the sensation, there is something more authentic, something more subtly silken about Lena's skin that Kara, with her invulnerableness, has missed. It is like touching Lena for the first time again. A spark races down Kara's arm and she shivers with the building anticipation of touching her wife in all the places and ways she has dreamed of.

The difference in body temperature is most shocking to Kara. The pad of her thumb sweeps back and forth across Lena's cheek and the 5⁰C of temperature difference between human and Kryptonian normal becomes a tantalizing tease to her senses. Kara can tell differences in temperature when she has her powers but it is an abstract awareness, like saying the colours blue and red are different. The difference in temperatures never actually affecting Kara, yet now the delicious coolness of Lena's skin makes Kara's hand tingle and she cannot help but wonder if Lena feels this cool all over, what will her skin taste like and feel like beneath Kara's tongue?

"You're beautiful," Kara whispers in awe.

Lena blushes delicately at her wife's adoration. The blush darkening the red hue of her skin and making her appear even more lovely.

Lena's pupils are blown wide, Kara absently wonders if it is in part a physiological reaction to the red light or if it is all her wife's arousal.

In a move of uncharacteristic boldness Kara leans forward and captures her wife's lips.

Lena responds automatically but her mind is cataloguing the differences of this kiss.

Kara tastes the same, sweet and something uniquely her, but her lips feel even more pillowy soft than usual and Kara is kissing her with more pressure and force than ever before. Lena quickly loses the train of her thoughts, rising to meet this new found passion in her wife.

Kara, unafraid of losing control and truly lost in sensation for the first time ever can safely pour all of her attention into her wife, this moment and the pleasure that they share.

Lena opens her mouth giving Kara's tongue entrance and Lena is pleasantly surprised to find that the dance of their tongues feels more natural, more equal. There is a hesitancy missing from Kara's actions that Lena had never noticed before.

When they kissed before, Kara has always had to be mindful to allow her tongue to yield and respond to Lena, to be gentle, but now they plunder each other's mouths, their tongues tasting, duelling and caressing each other.

Lena pulls back with pecking kisses before nipping Kara's lip as usual but instead of gaining the customary nasally gasp of pleasure it pulls a small yip of pain from Kara who pulls back sharply, looking shocked, her hand rising to her lip.

Lena sits back quickly, an apology jumping to her lips as she realizes her mistake. The pressure she normally exhibits with Kara in these playful bites is now too much that her wife is powerless.

"I'm sorry I forg-" Lena begins sadly but is cut off by another kiss from her wife..

Between sipping kisses Kara gasps out, "Its-" kiss, "fine-" kiss "you-" kiss "just-" kiss "have-" kiss "to-" kiss "be-" kiss "gentle-" kiss "with-" kiss "me-" kiss "now-" kiss "for-" kiss "a-" kiss "change."

Lena smiles into the sipping kisses of her wife before dragging her forward so her hands are in her wife's hair and she is able to apply subtle pressure, keeping her at her mercy.

Lena revels in the fact she is actually able to drag her wife closer and the breathy mewls Kara lets past her lips as Lena flexes her hands in her wife's hair. The action of pulling subtly on her golden locks to anchor them more firmly together has Kara gasping into their kiss.

Kara's hands wander lower across her wife's gauzy black gown that barely conceals the milky curves beneath. Kara groans before pulling back, and with a half growl of frustration, she lifts her wife bodily from the couch in a bridal style lift. For a moment it seems Kara will waver in lifting her wife but catches her footing and with slower than usual steps begins walking around the side of the circular bed.

Lena lets out a squeak at her wife's show of strength and uncharacteristic almost fall.

"Kara!" she gasps, her eyes wide as she glances between her wife and the looming floor. Unconsciously, Lena's arms wined around her wife's neck and she curls into the embrace, revelling in the muscles she can actually feel straining for a change beneath her.

Kara looks down at her wife with a cocky smile, "I'm still Kryptonian. Denser muscles and bones. Enough to carry my wife to bed," Kara declares with a smouldering look that seems to have washed away her hesitance before she swoops in for another kiss.

Before Lena can protest or indulge in the kiss further, she finds herself squeaking again as she is launched into the air when Kara heaves her forward before jumping after her.

Lena gasps before landing on the round bed which gives under her weight before seeming to rebound and mould around her.

"Kara!" Lena gasps.

Her wife giggles. The sound innocent and playful, weightless and free in a way that Lena has never heard before.

Any thoughts of chastising her wife for the shock leave Lena's minds as the sound invades her head and her heart.

Kara lands and looms over Lena. The powder blue robe gaping open to reveal tanned skin that seems darker in the red light of the room.

Lena's hands twitch to run across her wife's body but her mind cannot escape the odd feeling of the bed. As Lena shifts so too does the mattress.

Lena glances down at where her elbows rest, the bed seems to have moulded to accommodate her and with every fractional adjustment of her body the bed almost pre-emptively matches her movement.

Lena's eyes are narrowed as she focuses on the movement.

Kara snorts in amused exasperation as she sees her wife's attention is caught by the alien bed.

Kara moves her hands to either side of Lena's head and grasps the bed which seems to mould to her movement before rebounding.

Lena watches in astonishment.

Kara sighs. "It's a microbead bed with an adaptive and responsive matrix. The beads are less than a micron in diameter and respond to the electrical impulses of the body. There is a rudimentary central AI which controls the beads and causes their adaptive hive behaviour. We haven't used the bed much so it is still learning to adapt to our preferences for restful sleep and…other activities. You can examine it later. I promise," Kara indulgently tells her wife.

Lena's eyes have become fastened on Kara's lips as she speaks, looming above her.

She squirms slightly and cocks an eyebrow before skimming her hand up the centre of Kara's body between her breasts.

"Gods but its sexy when you talk science to me. I'll hold you to that promise love, but right now I am much more interested in hearing more about these other activities the bed may need to adapt to." Lena declares saucily.

Kara groans grabbing Lena's wandering hand to gently kiss her fingertips before tumbling forward to entwine their limbs together.

Lena and Kara kiss heatedly before in a move of unexpected speed and strength Lena rolls Kara beneath her.

Lena offers a truly smug smile at being able to shock her wife and finally roll her on her own power. Lena notes that Kara definitely weighs more and feels sturdier under the red light but years of gym work and Pilates mean Lena only needed to strain a little to tumble her lover.

Kara is panting heavily already. The usually silent Kryptonian gasping for air in her excitement, the rise and fall of her chest the sexiest thing Lena has ever seen before.

Lena gazes down at her wife and with deliberately slow actions she begins to remove her black night-gown.

Slowly, shimmying it down each shoulder.

Pausing to frame and plump her breasts while flicking her hair forward coquettishly. At last, Lena undoes the belt and draws back the gossamer material to let it pool behind her on the bed between Kara's legs.

Kara is mesmerised. Lena is a goddess. Her usually pale white skin glows palest pink like fine Levantina marble under the red light. Her heavy breast, curvy thighs and tight stomach all seem even more beautiful to Kara now that they are cast in the red glow of Rao. Lena's dusky nipples stand erect, hard and are cast dark in the red light.

The neat dark curls between her legs dew with her arousal.

Kara seems to have lost the power of her arms; she attempts to lift the suddenly leaden limbs but feels uncoordinated.

Lena sweeps forward for a kiss. The cool skin of her breasts meeting Kara's and driving a hissing breath of shock from her lover before it is swallowed in a searing kiss.

Lena draws back, "Allow me?" she whispers.

Kara isn't sure what she means but nods weakly, trusting her wife.

Lena undoes the dusky blue belt of Kara's robe, slipping it across her arms and allowing it to pool behind her.

Lena is struck still for a moment. Kara lies beneath her, arms to her sides, blonde hair pooled on the bed and the discarded robe has fallen in such a way that it seems Kara has two dark gossamer wings rising from her back.

She is an angel in red. An angel of Rao if such a thing exists. Lena makes a note to ask Kara about it later and sends a silent prayer to the god she does not believe in but still thanks for her wife none the less.

Lena trails her fingers up Kara's thighs, skipping the neat hairless slit that is mere inches away to rise up her sides and begin skimming the pert breasts of her wife and circling her nipples before grasping them almost harshly in her hands. Kara throws back her head and gasps at the rough sensation and Lena can only watch her own hands and her wife's reactions as though a visitor in her own body.

Lena's fingers dance nonsensical patterns across Kara's skin, pressing what will be fingertip bruises later in between gentlest touches. Lena can hold off no longer and she sweeps down to suckle Kara's right breast. The nub of her breast goes harder still inside the warmth of Lena's mouth which is so at odds with the rest of Lena's lower human body temperature.

Kara vaguely becomes aware of the heat of Lena's core as she begins to gently rock across Kara's thighs.

Kara's hands curl around Lena, roaming and caressing back and forth across her lover's silken spine.

The sensations are verging on too much for Kara, she gasps, all blood in Kara's body seems to rush to where Lena is laving attention Kara's breast. The tingles and heat from her breasts seem to race across her back and up to the base of her skull, driving up and up as though swirling to some unseen crescendo.

Lena pulls back slightly, trailing kisses up Kara's breast, nibbling gently on her collar bone and then ravishing her neck.

"yes, please yes" Kara gasps as Lena begins to suckle on Kara's neck.

Lena noses some of Kara's hair away form her ear to hotly whisper, "Are you sure Kara?"

Kara is beyond sense but somehow manages to gasp out "Please, anything…trust you."

Lena smiles into Kara's neck before sucking a small clump of her lovers' skin between her teeth, marvelling at the ease of the action, how her invulnerable lover's skin gives to her attention, before becoming lost as she sucks harder drawing blood to the surface and worrying it with her teeth and tongue.

Lena holds the action for a few moments as Kara squirms and gasps before releasing the skin with a slightly harsher bite.

Kara moans at the loss of contact on her neck but refocuses on the other sensations that flood her senses, drowning in the ability to feel and focus and know nothing else but her own pleasure and her wife's body.

Kara's body responds to the stimulation and sensation. The wetness of her wife, her gentle rocking which is becoming more persistent, the sensual touch and now Lena's teeth which have just left her neck, have left but have marked her.

Kara's ovipositor pushes itself out of her neat slit. The thick tube of flesh is warm against Lena's core and it twitches as she grinds forward, the almost imperceptible ripple of the tentacles within undulating the flesh.

After a moment Lena pulls back fully, soothing Kara's neck with her tongue and finally getting to see and admire her first ever hickey on her wife. It is a small dark badge rimmed with subtle indentations of Lena's teeth. Lena can't help the surge of possessiveness that overtakes her nor the way she dives forward to almost violently kiss her wife, plundering her mouth as her hands roam her back and score minute scratches with her short nails.

Kara gasps at the assault of sensations. Lena's grinding increases and instead of holding still or having to gently respond with measured control Kara throws herself forward in erratic thrusts seeking friction and contact as she kisses her wife for dear life.

Kara's patience is running low, she can't wait any longer, she needs more, she needs to be connected to Lena. For the first time ever she can give into her desire without restraint, no longer needing to control her every movement and watch her strength.

Pushing up she grabs Lena's shoulder and with a grunted effort rolls Lena beneath her.

The tip of Kara's ovipositor teases the dark coarse curls of Lena's opening and they both groan.

Lena wiggles forward insinuating the very tip into her body.

Kara squeezes her eyes shut and gasps for breath as she is assaulted by sensation and her body cries out that she should thrust forward. Kara wants to savour this moment, to savour all the new sensations, savour not having to hold back her strength.

Lena's hands ghost up Kara's sides to cup her face, " **Mo grá,"** Lena whispers in irish, calling her love back to her. "Kara, I'm here, **_amarch! Éist!"_**

Kara opens her eyes, dark pools of lust meeting Lena's jade orbs cast darker in the red light.

Kara centres herself and focuses on her wife's eyes, on her words of reassurance. Kara's hands ghost over Lena's hands and down her arms to grip her biceps.

"We do this together Kara. We don't do this to each other but with each other. Breathe. I'm here **_mo grá._** "

Kara breaths slow and she nods imperceptibly.

With inching movements and a grip that will later leave bruises on Lena's arms Kara inches forth. Lena's cooler body temperature is a mind-blowing contrast to the scalding heat of her core which now begins to surround Kara's ovipositor.

Lena is hot and wet and tight…so Rao be damned tight! Kara clenches her jaw so tight that she thinks her teeth will shatter. It has never felt like this. Kara never realized how much her invulnerability dulled her sense of tactile touch. Lena always felt wonderful but now it feels transcendent. Lena is soft but tight, as Kara pushes forward Lena's core ripples slightly and as Kara begins to draw back and forth Lena clenches her muscles and bears down with each thrust. The friction drives heat up Kara's spine like a cascading fire. Pins and needles erupt across her shoulders and up her neck into her hair line.

Kara knows she is gasping but she can't stop and she can't slow down. She thrusts fast, bearing down into Lena. She needs more heat, more pressure, more of this incredible friction.

It's almost too much.

It verges on pain.

Kara wants to stop, to let the sensations die down so she can recover, so she can elevate some of the mad rush yet Lena is squirming beneath her now, crying out and begging.

"Yes, yes Kara, uhm…so good. Harder, yes uh, faster" Lena mumbles, demands and begs in a nonsensical symphony as her hands skitter across Kara's shoulders and back.

Kara pushes forward, the pleasure/pain she has never felt before rising and rising.

Kara begs Rao that it will lead somewhere because she feel like she might die if it doesn't.

Kara feels her body burn, verging on overheating, which should be impossible with her Kryptonian homeostatic system. Black spots appear in her vision and before Kara can truly worry there is a last rush of warmth and almost burning that surges up her spine.

Kara loses all rhythm as she drives unrelentingly into Lena, frantically pushing her into the bed, groaning and slapping their joined hips together in a punishing crescendo. Lighting seems to race through Kara's veins as she comes, her ovipositor unfurls into the lace leaf configuration inside Lena. Kara's ovipositor pushing against Lena's insides, against her cervix and walls but for the first time ever Lena's rippling walls push back. The pressure doubling and driving sensations of heat and friction deeper into Kara's sensitive organ.

Kara can vaguely feel her tentacles squirming free, touching and grasping every par of Lena's heat before she finally comes in a breath stealing crash.

Almost at the same time as Lena feels those tentacles push her over the edge and Kara comes, her thick almost uncomfortable hot cum pooling within her, Lena cums too. Sweat glistened and her voice broken with her pleas for more cracks harshly as she cries out.

Lena's limbs spasm and her back bows as Kara collapses on-top of her, her full weight pressing Lena into the mattress before it adapts and pushes back.

They lay there, spent for the moment, gasping and burning up like furnaces. Lena is sweat glistened while Kara, although sweat free thanks to her Kryptonian anatomy, gasps like a race horse, not for the air but in shock at the sensations.

Lena lies beneath Kara's weight, locked in place by her unfurled ovipositor. Lena is floating in a haze of sensation but unconsciously her hands are already petting nonsensical patterns into Kara's burning hot skin.

Kara gasps for air, the burning, rushing aftershocks causing her limbs to tremble as though she is being assaulted by Livewire.

An almost hysterical laugh escapes Kara but words yet escape her. Kara's ovipositor remains unfurled while her spent tentacles have drawn back within her slit. Her refractory period is obviously longer without her powers it seems.

Kara sends a small prayer of thanks to Rao because she needs the time to recover, to allow her mind to catch up to the profundity of her body's sensations.

Perhaps a half an hour passes in absolute silence as the pair revel in the sensations and allow their bodies to relax. Kara has begun skimming her hand across Lena's arm, when she feels her ovipositor finally curl and retract back into her body.

Both women moan at the loss of contact.

Kara rolls free to the side and gazes up in awe at her wife.

Lena's eyes are half lidded as though she is still lost in delirium.

"Hi," Kara whispers with a goofy smile.

Lena returns her smile with a lethargic smirk before replying, "Hi."

They are lost in each other's gaze until Kara tries to put her feelings into words.

"Lena, that was…It was…" Kara begins but faulters, her features becoming those of internal searching. The crinkle appearing between her brows.

Lena comes to awareness enough to become worried at Kara's lack of eloquence.

Was it not as amazing for Kara as it was for Lena?

Were the sensations too much and Lena pushed her too hard for her own pleasure?

Lena's eyes sweep across Kara's form, taking in the already forming shadows of bruises on Kara's skin and the small hickey she left on her neck. A moment of hesitancy and self-doubt overtakes Lena. Maybe she was too rough?

Lena reaches hesitantly out to caress Kara's brow, smoothing away the crinkle and drawing her from her internal ruminations.

"It was what Kara?" Lena asks hesitantly.

Kara refocuses on Lena and sees her worry, she reaches out to caress Lena's cheek and reassure her.

"It was everything Lena. Better than anything I ever dreamed of. Beautiful, transcendent, energising, exhausting, it was ecstasy…" Kara rambles and Lena cannot help but cock her infamous eyebrow and smugly interrupt, "Transcendent eh?"

Kara blushes but nods shyly.

Lena nuzzles Kara, softly rubbing their foreheads together before sharing a soft, chaste kiss.

"Transcendent... yes that is a good word indeed," Lena whispers reverently to Kara.

Kara smiles before humorously offering, "And exhausting!"

Kara giggles but soon cuts off when Lena gives her an arrogant and challenging look as her hand roams up and down Kara's naked flank.

"Exhausting Kara? But we haven't even gotten to the main event yer," Lena huskily questions.

Kara's heart accelerates suddenly, and she squeaks, "Main ev-ent?"

Lena hums as she rolls forward to straddle her wife.

"Yes, main event," Lena whispers as her hand drifts down to curl possessively between Kara's legs.

"Oh," Kara whispers, her eyes going wide.

"Oh indeed," Lena husks.

"Lie back my tired girl and let me take care of you?" Lena asks, her hands slipping free of Kara as she asks her question.

If Kara refuses then Lena will back off, tamp down her hunger and her arousal.

Kara softly smiles at her wife, seeing the wealth of care and concern in Lena's eyes.

"Please," Kara husks as she drags her wife's head down to steal a kiss.

Lena indulges in tasting her wife's mouth and lips before slowly trailing her kisses lower. Laving both her breasts to hardened and reddened peaks.

Lena can feel Kara's ovipositor pushing out again against her thigh, but she ignores it for now to trail more kisses down to Kara's washboard abs.

If Kara had a body part that should be bronzed and displayed for all to worship it was her golden and sculpted abs. Lena has tasted them, every crease and crevice. Felt them crunch as Kara pumps into her. Felt them hard and unyielding as she ground against them until she came, wet and sticky across them.

Kara gasps as Lena kisses those abs, her tongue swirling into their definitions and once again marvelling at how different they feel without Kara's powers. They still feel solid and sculpted but they ripple beneath Lena's laving tongue and pulse with soft fluttering as Kara's breath stutters in her arousal. Lena loves the slight give she can feel in Kara's body under the red light, especially now as she tastes her skin here.

Kara's hands wonder into Lena's hair and with insistent pressure they indicate her need for Lena to lower her attention to between Kara's legs.

Lena reluctantly works her way further south away from these Rao sculpted abs to between Kara's legs where her ovipositor now bobs incessantly.

Lena observes that where Kara's almost invisibly neat slit had sat between her legs is now her multi purpose sexual organ (gods but they needed a simpler and sexier name for it). The protruding tapered cylinder of flesh is slightly paler than Kara's golden skin tone, glistening wet and mapped with delicate veins.

Lena knows from experience that if she touches it with her hands then it will likely remain in this male form but that is counter productive to her plans.

Lena has penetrated Kara with a titanium strap-on, but other than that rather impersonal and rare experience she has never been able to be inside Kara. The danger of Kara's unconsciously spasming and super strong internal muscles has prevented Kara from penetrating her wife with her fingers less she suffer crushed phalanges.

Lena is suddenly short of breath at the anticipation of what is to come. Soon she will be able to connect with Kara in a way she has only dreamed of. She will be within her wife, she will be able to feel her wife inside and out, to bring her pleasure in the most intimate and vulnerable of ways thanks to the red sun lamp.

Lena refocuses on the appendage before her and with a delicate touch she laps at the very tip of the ovipositor and breathes out her warm breath in a deliberate move that she knows is likely to cause the anatomical change she seeks.

The flesh ripples and almost on cue Kara's cylinder of flesh unfurls as she moans.

The fleshy tube uncurls from the cylinder into a flat leaf of flesh that looks remarkably like a Laceleaf. The thin, almost translucent tentacles within revealed to have been inside begin at the top of Kara's slit where her clit would have been, had she been human. They squirm independently of each other, seeming to seek contact in tandem with the moans and wanton wriggles of their owner. While the ovipositor is flesh coloured on the outside in the 'male' form, the unfurled leaf of the female form is vivid red and pulses with heat and moisture.

Lena's hands reach forward and caress the deep red glistening flesh which is like nothing any human possesses. The red flesh is scorching hot and moist. As Lena caresses it and begins to increase her pace and strength as she rubs the surface, the red flesh flushes deeper and ripples in tandem. Kara groans and gasps for air. All control is lost as Kara rakes her hands through her hair and it is only by Lena insinuating her body between her legs that keep them open to her attention.

Seeing no protest forth coming, Lena speeds up her caresses and intermittently dips her head down to lick and taste the red flesh which is thick with moisture and the very essence of Kara.

"So cold, faster, don't stop…" Kara groans almost incoherently. Lena smirks and speeds up her movements.

The tentacles, which had previously been randomly squirming across Lena's hands and the laceleaf flesh beneath, now grasp blindly onto Lena's hands. They wind around her fingers, the flesh rippling beneath her touch and Kara moaning unabashedly and deeply. Kara's whole-body trembles and Lena smiles in smug satisfaction. She was doing that, she was making Kara tremble.

The tentacles gently pull on Lena's caressing fingers, pulling them towards their origin, towards Kara's opening of their own accord.

Unlike every instance before Lena is able to allow her fingers to be guided to the tentacle's origin, to the apex of Kara's immaculate slit.

Hesitating but a moment at this new threshold, but seeing no protest from Kara, Lena delves two of her fingers within and her mind stops.

The tentacles have retracted with Lena's fingers, pulling them further in and for the first time Lena is within her wife.

There is a moment of stillness and Lena lifts herself so that she can face her wife, look deeply into her red hazed cerulean eyes.

Kara gasps as their eyes lock.

Lena holds absolutely still, revelling in the action, cataloguing every sensation and feeling.

While Kara's body temperature is warmer than human normal, her internal temperature here seems almost painfully hot.

Lena sinks her fingers deeper as Kara struggles for a breath and Lena braces her left arm above her lover to balance herself as she processes the sensations.

Kara's inner walls are not smooth like a human. There is pressure but there is also what seems to be a feeling of ribbed muscles that are angled inward. The ridged muscles flutter in a Mexican wave across Lena's fingers almost dragging or begging them to penetrate deeper.

The translucent tentacles which have retracted with the entrance of Lena's fingers grasp her fingertips and try to drag them further, deeper within.

Kara locks eyes with Lena and with a small nod and a moment of silent communication between the lovers Lena begins to thrust. Shallowly at first but picking up speed as the heat and moisture inside Kara's walls increases with every thrust.

All the while they never break eye contact. Kara's breaths are ragged and Lena's match her wife's. They are united in this moment, not just physically but in some deeper way too. It is like they are sharing electrons on exchanging the very energies of life.

Kara cannot help her stray thought that her people were mad to eschew this act, this closeness as barbarous or primitive. It's the closest to Rao she has ever felt, the closest to the divine she will ever know.

Lena bears down into Kara. She feels the beginning of a cramp in her bicep, but she pushes through, increasing her speed and power to push harder and faster into her lovers ridged silken depths.

The muscles squeeze Lena's fingers almost painfully but the neat slit dilates to accommodate her and Kara breathlessly gasps, "More" just before Lena adds a third finger. A slight twist to Lena's thrusts rings a ragged gasp from Kara who begins scrabbling at the brown bed sheets beneath her.

The pleasure burns and rises, Kara can barely think. The heat from her core, from muscles untouched by any other but Mon-El (and poorly so at that) sends delicious sparks up her spine. The heat radiates from her core and her whole body begins to tremble.

Kara feels like she can't breathe, that there is no air in the room. There is nothing but her and Lena, and Lena's torturous ministrations.

The flicking twists of Lena's thrusts drag grunts of effort from Lena and gasps from Kara.

"I..I think…I am…I'm cumin—" Kara gasps, trying desperately to drag air into her lungs.

Lena sweeps down to kiss her lover and with a final spirt of speed Kara comes, heat rushing up her spine and she tears her mouth from Lena's to cry out in pleasure.

Lena watches in awe as her wife falls apart beneath her. Her tired arm thrusts her fingers onwards, ringing the last drops of pleasure from Kara.

Kara goes limp and boneless, her eyes rolling back in her head. For a moment Lena thinks she has hurt Kara who goes as quiet and still as the dead but for her laboured breathing.

A quiet, smug voice within Lena's mind can't help but be proud at how she has undone Supergirl, how she has reduced her to a quivering pile of flesh, insensate from pleasure.

Lena withdraws her fingers and after a moment's hesitation she sucks them clean. She groans at the musky deep taste of her wife.

With soft care, and much effort to move the denser Kryptonian frame, Lena drags the brown sheets off the bed and around her and her lover.

Kara is already asleep in post orgasmic exhaustion. Lena smiles indulgently at her indestructible lover.

The trust she shows Lena by falling asleep alone in her arms makes the moment all the more special. Lena tucks Kara in and snuggles closer. The experience of the red sun lamp has been transcendent, and one Lena intends to repeat. When Kara awakens there will need to be discussions of repeat performances, about the bruises and scratches blossoming on Kara and Lena's skin. The wonder of being so connected to her lover.

Lena's eyes fall on the hickey that marks Kara's neck. Lena momentarily considers using the panic word to turn off the red sun lamp but she chooses to indulge her predatory, possessive Luthor side and leave it on so the mark can remain a little while longer.

For now though, Lena will indulge in an experience she has only had with Kara: sleeping peacefully with her lover.

 **The end.**


End file.
